Foot.ie: Closed Community?

[dahamsta]

I'm getting a little ticked off with having to deal with the messing on Foot.ie, it's starting to encroach on my time and it's starting to turn the site into a chore rather something I do for fun. Wayne's latest little jaunt is an example of this, with an accusation of theft and the registration of several accounts to launch an attack that he thinks is the funnehest th1ng evar, but it's not the actions of just one user that's causing this, it's the regular returns to idiocy that wears me down.

Between this and dealing with bounces and the other everyday tasks I have to handle, my ability to enjoy running Foot.ie is being diluted. I'm sick of it, to be perfectly frank, and although I've never minded operating the site for free for the community, I have to question the future of the site if it's going to continue like this. I've got better things to do with my time than to deal with wasters like Wayne and his ilk.

One option open to me is to close the site off to non-members, so that they can only view the site if they register and join, however I'm not sure if even that will cure the ills. I'd be interested in hearing your opinions though.

adam

[dahamsta]

By the way, I should have mentioned: Registrations on Foot.ie are currently suspended. You have Wayne to thank for this.

adam

[FONT=courier new]-----Original Message-----
From: Wayne Mullins [mailto:forzacity@europe.com]
Sent: 22 May 2003 23:02
To: adam
Subject: Adam


Adam,
In fairness it was all a bit of fun and I did not write any comment on that post! Believe it or not!
But you did take it slightly to serious I feel...

Have a Happy "LITHUANIAN" year! hehehehehe
--
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Sign-up for your own FREE Personalized E-mail at Mail.com
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[Ref]

adam,

first of all i think i speak for most people on this board when i say that the work you put into this site is very much appreciated and we are all very grateful to you for the effort you put in considering you get very little but hassle from it.

it's like refereeing, without referees there would be no game. referees are taken for granted and abused as if they were the scum of the earth yet without them there would be chaos and anarchy.

without the effort you put in this board would be a shambles.

but heres only one of you adam.

there are Members: 1,202, Threads: 7,335, Posts: 54,065

thats far too many for you to try and control and keep order over.

it's like putting one Garda in Patrick St. on a Saturday night.

promote a few of the willing mods to super mods and take maybe a day or two each to keep order.

you could each still contribute to the board as normal but you'd have specified days for controlling the board.

unfortunately there will always be people like Wayne, regarding the accusation of theft, if it's serious i'm sure that something could be done about it.

regarding closing the site off to non-members, people would still join up and write rubbish and accuse you of all sorts.

stick with it and i'm sure theres a lot of people that would be willing to help you out.

keep smiling,
Ref.

[A face]

Wayne, cop the fúck on NOW Wayne.


We dont need to kinda crap ..... dont spoil the party for everyone.


As serious as a heart-attack ....... SORT IT OUT OR FÚCK OFF

[shedite]

Originally posted by Ref
promote a few of the willing mods to super mods and take maybe a day or two each to keep order.

God, that Pat Dolan is getting his way with everything. The Super Mods???

[Ref]

shedite,

adam said in the rules

There are three major mod groups on Foot.ie: mods (coaches), super mods (managers) and admins (directors). Mods are masters only of their own forums, it's the only place they have auth-or-itay. Super mods can moderate all forums on the site, but their main task is to keep a general eye on the forums that are unattended. Admins have access to everything, and watch everthing and everyone. It should be noted that admins are incorrigible lurkers; just because you don't see them doesn't mean they aren't there.



FYI, it was adam that named them super mods.

[dahamsta]

...and I in turn called them supermods because that's what the vBulletin developers called them.

adam

[Gary]

Well, at the end of it all it is up to you if you want to close it.

While i dont find what yur man said was funny or clever or anything, i always say that when you are in a certain position, there will always be people who will try and spoil it for you. That email/post is an example of that.

That said, i would be fairly peed off if i were in your shoes.

But Adam, really, could you really make us "homeless"? Could you really ruin Eannas drive to be footies top poster?

[yur man]

GWA
While i dont find what yur man said was funny or clever or anything

what did i do

[dahamsta]

To be clear, I have no intention of closing the site at this time, I just think we need to come up with better ways of dealing with the disruptive element on the site.

adam

[dahamsta]

Originally posted by Conor74
Again, though, Adam, you should be more specific about what you mean when you refer to "disruptive element". Are you referring to posts that are onjectively objectionable, like spam or racist content, or posts that you feel are not of a certain quality?

Obviously I object strongly to the former, in fact I think it should be pretty clear to most regular members now that it simply isn't acceptable here, and won't be tolerated. The latter is more difficult to address though, since your definition of quality could be radically different to mine; even marginally different, which can still create a massive difference of opinion.

For example, one person might define "quality" as conversations that strictly adhere to football, and exclude discussions that only have a minor bearing on the game. Others might define it as requiring a certain intellectual level. In my case, on this particular website, I define it as having to do with behaviour -- what's acceptable and what's not.

Clearly I view Wayne's recent behaviour here as explicitly unacceptable, and I make no apologies for dealing with him the way I did. His behaviour was childish and disrespectful, and this is just one of a long line of incidents that leads me to believe that he has nothing of value to contribute to the site. Another recent example is the idiotic little flame wars that resulted in yet more cries of C3N50R5H1P! here.

What many fail to realise is that I have to deal with the fallout from these problems both on the site proper and also in the background. When someone steps out of line, I have to follow them around for a few days to see if they decide to go out in flames, I have to watch for new registrations of "supporters", and occasionally I have to deal with abuse via email.

All of that's on top of the daily grind of operating the site proper -- managing bounces, writing code, fiddling with templates, etc; and all of /that/ comes on top of my regular daily grind -- moderating a forum on Boards.ie, monitoring mailing lists, etc; and all of /that/ comes on top of the stuff I get paid for, which includes managing another large vBulletin installation (TCM Forums).

As you can imagine, it all adds up, and it should be obvious that I'd want to minimise the amount of time I spend overseeing Foot.ie. As I've said before here only recently, I view my position on Foot.ie as the last point of appeal, the person people come to when it can't be sorted out between themselves, the mods and the supermods.

That doesn't seem to be happening. If it was, I probably wouldn't even have seen Wayne's post, and the flame wars between the kidiots would stop before I needed to step in. I've said all this before only recently though, and nothing seems to have changed in the interim, so I guess I'm just venting to the ether. Pehaps I'm just a whining old fúck.

adam

[Éanna]

Originally posted by Vetinari
If it was, I probably wouldn't even have seen Wayne's post, and the flame wars between the kidiots would stop before I needed to step in.

Not trying to be smart or anything, but I thought we weren't supposed to delete posts. I'm just ever so slightly confused

[dahamsta]

You're not, but that's why we have a Rubbish forum.

Actually, that's another thing I meant to ask you guys about: On Boards.ie, the dumping ground is in the clear, everyone can see it. When it was originally set up, a lot of flame wars ended up being continued in there (I was subscribed to it at one stage!) but as time goes by people don't seem to bother any more. Should the sh1tter here be the same, or leave it the way it is?

adam